Wandering and Wondering
by My5tic-Lali
Summary: Leo lay on the damp grass, wondering idly whether he'd ever have a significant other to give chocolates to. Sorta angsty!Leo two-shot. No pairings. pre-TLH
1. Chapter 1

The stones rattled down the slope, knocking others down as they skipped further and further away from Leo.

He watched them idly as he continued walking towards the twinkling lights of the town. The hill he had come from overlooked a large, green park that resided at the town's edge. Leo had yet to pass any people, but knew that wouldn't last long. Even if he saw any, they'd just look at him funny. You didn't see a dirty, scrawny Hispanic teenager walking down a street in sneakers that were practically falling off his feet every day after all.

The ground leveled out before the sun had fully set, and Leo found himself walking in the shade of trees, and the ground under his worn-out sneakers changed from gravel to miles of grass. Thoughts swirled around Leo's head until his stomach growled loudly. Leo lifted his eyes to the slowly darkening sky and wondered idly where he was going to get any food. _I'm probably going to get caught before long,_ Leo mused to himself as the stars began to wink into existence above him.

Six times running away from foster homes taught you that overbearing foster parents do not hesitate to alert the police as soon as you don't show up at curfew. And for some odd reason, Leo apparently screamed 'I'm a runaway orphan! Turn me in so I can go back to my wonderful foster parents!', and as soon as he would enter a large enough town, he'd be collared by some not-so-gentle policeman and taken to the precinct.

Leo nearly walked into the first people he'd seen in two days. He had turned around a large oak tree and skidded to a halt in front of a couple, locked in a passionate kiss. He blinked and nearly burst out laughing. Neither of the college students acknowledged his presence. Leo slowly backed away, stifling laughter as the two almost fell over. The girl seemed to be holding a large, heart-shaped box.

Leo slipped behind a bush and realized he must have lost track of the days. _It must be Valentine's,_ he mused.

Couples always brought back memories of his mom, and the lack of information he had on his father. When Leo was littler, he used to try and visualize what his dad looked like. He had determined that his dad would have curly, brown hair, like Leo, and twinkling eyes like Esperanza had. His laugh would boom, and he would be ADHD, same as Leo, and unable to contain all the cool ideas he had for inventions.

Leo used to fantasize about when he would finally be able to meet his dad. They'd build stuff together in Mom's workshop, and Leo's Dad would take him bike riding.

But that was all before the fire. Now Leo barely spared his dad a second thought. He could care less now. All that mattered was getting away from the old memories of his mom and the fire, and not being cooped up.

Leo's stomach gave another loud grumble, and the sound of kissing stopped.

"Did you hear that?" The girl's voice rang out in the silence.

Leo felt a grin steal over his features as an idea came into mind and the boy replied "Y-yeah. It sounded like...growling. But there aren't any wolves or bears around here. You know that. It's probably just a stray dog."

* * *

The shrill shriek of the girl stayed in the air long after she had raced away from her boyfriend, tripping over her high-heeled boots, and casting terrified looks over her shoulder. Her date hadn't stayed much longer after she had fled, eyes darting around, trying to locate the source of the strange shadows and noises, before high-tailing it out of the vicinity, his scream barely lower than the one that had split the air previously.

Leo waited until the screams died out before dropping to the ground from the branch were he had hid and breaking into laughter.

He hadn't pulled a prank like that in...at least two months. He was getting out of practice.

His jacket had performed admirably to create the shadows, and the strange flute his mom had given him years before could create rather creepy noises when blown right.

Eventually, the laughter died out until only the crickets could be heard, chirping in chorus, serenading the twinkling stars.

Leo stayed on the damp grass, wondering idly whether he'd ever have a significant other to give chocolates to.

**A/N:**

**Happy Singleness Awareness Day! I know it's almost too late, but oh well.**

**Leo rocks my socks off. I do not believe I have given a good tribute to my favorite character of HoO, but I need to finish my homework and have no time to fix it. Enjoy this rushed fic-might go back and fix any grammar mistakes later. I just don't have time right now.**

**Have a great day.**

**Reviews are appreciated, as always!**


	2. Chapter 2

Somehow, Leo was able to avoid police and truancy officers until the following summer.

Leo _tried_ to explain that his previous foster family just didn't cut it, and that they really had had a hard time understanding that their electric fan worked ten times better after Leo improved it, though, yes, he did have to take apart Mrs. Kinnon's electric hair dryer in order to fix it.

The truancy officer had eventually lost his temper. "Now listen here, Valdez."

"I generally start to ignore people when they say that."

"The Wilderness School is a great program for Troubled Kids, where you'll get the chance to learn in a different way than regular school and make new friends, while our state-recognized teachers will help you through your various problems..."

Leo tuned him out. Going into the middle of nowhere to the "Wilderness School" for "Troubled Kids" sounded _so _much fun. He just couldn't wait. Another place with mean kids and false-sympathetic teachers. And of course, this being his sixth time of running away and getting caught again, this school must be pretty high-security. It would take more than just wandering off when the foster parents took the younger kids out to ice cream to get out. Leo would have to think of a good plan.

"Valdez!"

Leo jerked back into the present with an innocent smile and said in his purposefully-unhelpful tone "And what can I do for you today, sir?"

The truancy officer's fists were clenching around his pen so hard that Leo was surprised that it didn't break in half.

"Did you hear _anything_ that I just said?" The older man looked like he was fending off a migraine.

"After the riot act you read me on the way here, no." Leo said, smiling.

Sparks were almost flying out of the officer's nostrils. Then, without warning, he sighed and placed a hand to his forehead. "You might just be my hardest case of the year."

Leo smirked. "Of the year? I'm pretty sure I've been annoying you for more than a year."

The man gave a tired smile and tried to force false cheeriness into his next words. "Alright, let's get you to the Wilderness School!"

* * *

The woman was good. Leo gave her that much.

He had turned on his signature Leo-charm to try and get her to drop him off somewhere _other _than the middle of nowhere, to no avail. Even bribery didn't work.

"Oh come on. There has to be _something _I can do to get you to take me to another place than some School for Wild, Disturbed Children!"

She only smiled and kept her eyes on the road.

Leo scowled and turned his gaze to the endless road ahead of them. He found himself subconsciously typing out _Miss you _on his knee with Morse code and clenched his fists. Tapping out messages to no one were becoming a habit and he needed to stop it. Leo couldn't very well run away from the memories if he just brought them up with every time he looked in the mirror.

The woman must have noticed Leo's tight expression and said reassuringly "Don't worry about the new school. They have great teachers and the kids are mostly nice. It could make a great new home for you!"

Leo ignored her.

The short, grouchy man that met Leo at the entrance could have won a thousand awards for biggest ego and largest scowl.

"Valdez, huh?" The man examined Leo, who nodded noncommittally, critically.

"You don't look like much. Someone needs to give you a large meal and then let me take you out for a ten-mile hike! That'll give you some muscle. Not as much as me, of course."

Leo nearly grinned. "I'll go for the meal, but maybe not the hike."

'Coach Hedge' muttered something along the lines of "That's what they _all _say...let me tell you, running's better for you than a thousand carrots."

Leo let himself be lead into the large main room. The air smelled like over-cooked chicken nuggets and a loud racket of mixed screams, laughs, and shrill tones met Leo's ears. In other words, it was just like every other school he'd been to in the past years. The noise and smell seemed to be coming from down the hall, where Leo could see two large doors labeled CAFETERIA in huge letters. Coach Hedge led him straight towards the overly-loud room.

_Well, this will be fun._

* * *

"Sooo, Piper, was it?"

The brown-haired girl spun around to face Leo, her multi-colored eyes appraising him silently.

"Yeah?" Her tone was not particularly encouraging.

"I just wondered, seeing as no one else will give me the time of day, that you'd be kind enough to take the Leo man on a tour of the campus."

Her clipped "No," rang in the corridor long after she had walked away.

Pretty, smart, and totally out of Leo's league? She was totally his type. Maybe this school could be redeemable after all!

_-fin-_

* * *

AN: Yeah, here's the next, horrible part.

This is set before Jason comes and the Mist changes their memories, btw

I'm done with it now. Don't worry. I won't make a mess of pretty much the best series in the history of existence any more (well, not in this fic anyways...). I hope you like, even though I hate it. I may post another one-shot later today, this time for Harry Potter. If it's not up today, it'll be up tomorrow or Monday depending on whether I like it and have time.

**Thank you, Andrea! I hope you like this continuation. **

Reviews are very appreciated!


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